The year in review

January

As Democrats take control of Congress pledging to end the war in Iraq, President Bush orders 30,000 more troops to the country. The White House says this new strategy—which is quickly dubbed “the surge”—will tamp down violence and “create space for political progress.” Democrats insist the surge won’t work and that the war is essentially lost, but Bush says, “I’ve made my decision and we’re going forward.” Gen. David Petraeus, a counterinsurgency expert and proponent of the surge, takes over as the top American commander in Iraq. Polls show that 70 percent of Americans disapprove of the plan, while only 35 percent now say it was right to go to war in the first place. Iraqi civilian deaths hit an all-time monthly high of nearly 2,000. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama officially announce that they are running for president and begin campaigning in earnest, nearly a full year before the first primary.

February

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Congress passes a nonbinding resolution opposing the surge. “We’re gonna stop this surge,” vows Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change declares global warming “unequivocal” and finds a 90 percent chance that humans are to blame. An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore’s film about the environment, wins an Academy Award for Best Documentary. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, seen as a national hero for his calm eloquence in the days following 9/11, announces he’s running for president, and polls show him quickly surging ahead in a crowded Republican field that also includes former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney and Sen. John McCain. NASA astronaut Lisa Nowak is arrested at the Orlando airport for attempting to kidnap a romantic rival. Police say Nowak drove from Houston with a hammer, rubber tubing, and latex gloves, while wearing a diaper so she could make the drive without stopping. In Los Angeles, the fallen pop star Britney Spears, in an emotional tailspin after a year of divorce proceedings and relentless clubbing, checks into rehab. Twenty-four hours later, she checks out, drives to a hair salon, and shaves off all her hair, with paparazzi documenting every minute of the meltdown. That night, she goes clubbing.

March

Congress investigates allegations that nine U.S. attorneys were fired for political reasons, such as failing to prosecute Democrats. Internal Justice Department e-mails indicate that some attorneys were rated as “loyal Bushies,” while others were not. The White House denies any wrong­doing, but refuses to let Karl Rove and other key aides testify. The furor only intensifies criticism of the White House, which is already reeling from revelations that wounded Iraq war veterans were treated with indifference and neglect at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. The mood darkens further with the perjury conviction of former vice presidential chief of staff I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby for his role in the leak of an undercover CIA agent’s identity. On Wall Street, the stock market suffers its worst one-day drop since 9/11, triggered in part by defaults on home mortgages. The U.N. tightens sanctions on Iran after the country accelerates its uranium enrichment program. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad insists Iran is not seeking nuclear weapons.

April

Testifying before the Senate about his role in the U.S. attorney firings, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales uses variations of the phrase “I don’t recall” 71 times. His testimony “increased my confidence in his ability to do the job,” says Bush. Bucking the conservative wing of his party, Bush calls for comprehensive immigration reform to create a “path to citizenship” for an estimated 12 million illegal aliens. At Virginia Tech, undergraduate Seung-Hui Cho guns down 32 students and teachers in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. In a break between bursts of shooting, Cho stops at a post office to mail photos of himself to NBC news. Radio host Don Imus is fired after mocking the Rutgers University women’s basketball team as a bunch of “nappy-headed ho’s.” A financial report by John Edwards’ presidential campaign reveals that the populist candidate paid $400 for a haircut from a celebrity stylist.

May

With the surge picking up steam, 126 Americans are killed in Iraq, making May the single deadliest month of the war. Congress passes legislation requiring Bush to begin withdrawing troops by July. “The president wants a blank check,” says House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. “Congress is not going to give it to him.” Bush vetoes the bill. Congress then authorizes $120 billion for the war with virtually no strings attached. In France, voters hand a decisive victory to conservative presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy. Reversing years of official French anti-Americanism, Sarkozy declares “Our American friends can count on our friendship.” In Kentucky, a creationist organization opens a 60,000-square-foot, $27 million museum dedicated to the theory that Earth is 6,000 years old. It depicts humans and dinosaurs living side by side. At a Republican presidential debate, three candidates raise their hands to affirm that they do not believe in evolution.

June

The Senate kills Bush’s immigration reform bill. All but 10 of 48 Republican senators vote against it, having been flooded with angry calls and e-mails from voters. An Illinois company recalls 1.5 million Thomas the Tank Engine toys after testing reveals that the Chinese-made trains are coated in lead paint. The company sends everyone affected a new toy as a “bonus gift”; later it recalls these for the same reason. The Islamist Palestinian faction Hamas captures the Gaza Strip from the official Palestinian Fatah government. President Mahmoud Abbas describes the takeover as “a coup”: Hamas calls it “the second liberation of the Gaza Strip.” In the U.K., Prime Minister Tony Blair resigns his post after 10 years. Tabloid queen Paris Hilton spends 23 days in jail for driving with a suspended license. She vows to start a “new life” and to “use my fame in a good way.” After six seasons on HBO, the critically acclaimed series The Sopranos ends when the screen suddenly goes to black as Tony Soprano sits nervously in a diner. Fans spend weeks debating what the ending meant.

July

Senior Republicans join calls for a withdrawal from Iraq after the Iraqi government fails to meet 15 of 18 political benchmarks set by Congress in May. “There’s been a lot of progress in areas that aren’t necessarily measurable,” insists the White House. Shortly before Scooter Libby is to report for 30 months in jail, Bush commutes his sentence. In the U.K., eight people are arrested as members of a terror cell after three attempts at detonating car bombs in downtown London and the Glasgow airport go awry; most of the suspects are doctors from the Middle East and India. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the final book in the seven-volume fantasy series, goes on sale in 93 countries. In the U.S., it sells 8.3 million copies in the first 24 hours, shattering the record previously set by the sixth book in the series.

August

Violence in Iraq begins to decline as the U.S. deputizes formerly hostile Sunni Arab tribes to fight against the even more extreme al Qaida in Mesopotamia. In Minneapolis, a 40-year-old highway bridge collapses into the Mississippi River, killing 13 people. Fifty-two children in a school bus are saved when a 20-year-old gym teacher kicks out the back door and leads them to safety. “If we would have been a little bit faster or a little bit slower, we could have been down in the river or crunched by the cement,” says hero Jeremy Hernandez. Alberto Gonzales’ account of his activities at the Justice Department is contradicted by other officials; the Senate Judiciary Committee requests a perjury investigation. Karl Rove, Bush’s closest and longest-serving advisor, resigns. He rejects suggestions that the timing is tied to Congress’ investigations. Media mogul Rupert Murdoch purchases The Wall Street Journal for $5 billion; the eminent newspaper had been owned by the same family since 1903. Mattel recalls 18.2 million Chinese-made toys over concerns about lead paint and other hazards. Barry Bonds hits his 756th career home run, breaking Hank Aaron’s 31-year-old record. “This record is not tainted,” says Bonds, who is widely suspected of having used steroids. “It’s not tainted at all. At all. Period.”

September

Surrendering to intense pressure, Alberto Gonzales resigns. As a replacement, Bush nominates retired federal judge Michael Mukasey, whose confirmation is briefly hung up when he refuses to say whether waterboarding constitutes illegal torture. In the most anticipated military briefing since the Vietnam era, Gen. David Petraeus tells Congress that the surge in Iraq has succeeded, bringing a 45 percent decrease in sectarian violence. Monthly U.S. fatalities are the lowest in a year. In Myanmar, tens of thousands of protesters, led by Buddhist monks, take to the streets in a rare challenge to the ruling military junta. After several days of escalating marches, the government cracks down violently, killing at least 10 people and arresting 3,000. On a visit to the U.N., Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declares the controversy over Iran’s nuclear program “closed.” In a separate speech at Columbia University, he calls the Holocaust a mere theory and asserts that there are no homosexuals in Iran. Sen. Larry Craig, an Idaho Republican, confirms a newspaper report that he had been arrested several months earlier in a gay-sex sting, and had pleaded guilty. But Craig says he is not gay and was not trying to send sexual signals to the undercover officer in the adjacent stall of an airport bathroom. The arresting officer says Craig claimed that he put his foot under the partition because he has a “wide stance.”

October

Vice President Dick Cheney warns that Iran will face “serious consequences” if it does not abandon its nuclear program. A nuclear Iran, says Bush, could lead to “World War III.” Distressed that the leading Republican presidential candidates are Rudy Giuliani, a thrice-married, pro-choice, gay-friendly New Yorker, and Mitt Romney, a Mormon, conservative evangelicals discuss the possibility of forming a third party. “Winning the presidential election is vitally important, but not at the expense of what we hold most dear,” says Focus on the Family leader James Dobson. Al Gore and the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change share the Nobel Peace Prize. “We face a true planetary emergency,” says Gore. “The climate crisis is not a political issue, it is a moral and spiritual challenge to all of humanity.”

November

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announces stiff new sanctions on Iran, saying it threatens the world by pursuing technology that “can lead to a nuclear weapon.” With Pakistan’s Supreme Court poised to rule his presidency illegal, Gen. Pervez Musharraf declares a state of emergency and suspends the constitution. “It’s the blackest day in Pakistan’s history,” says opposition leader Benazir Bhutto. The U.S. Supreme Court institutes a de facto moratorium on the death penalty as it prepares to hear arguments that lethal injection is an unconstitutionally “cruel and unusual” punishment. In a breakthrough that one researcher compares to “turning lead into gold,” scientists say they have created stem cells without having to destroy human embryos. In Hollywood and New York, film and television writers walk off the job when producers fail to meet their demands for a new contract that gives them a cut of profits from content distributed over the Internet. A judge orders Britney Spears to stop driving with her children in the car after she is videotaped running a red light while sending a text message with the children asleep in the back seat.

December

A National Intelligence Estimate finds that Iran almost certainly abandoned its nuclear weapons program in 2003. “I view this report as a warning signal that they had the program,” Bush says, calling for tighter sanctions. “They could restart it.” In Russia, Vladimir Putin tightens his grip on power when his party wins a landslide victory in parliamentary elections. Putin says the results give him “moral authority” to wield power even after his presidency ends next year. In Venezuela, voters defeat President Hugo Chavez’s attempt to abolish presidential term limits and take control of the central bank and oil reserves. With weeks to go before the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary, front-runners Rudy Giuliani and Hillary Clinton sag in the polls, and the races get dirty. Facing hostility from evangelicals, Mitt Romney makes a speech in which he defends freedom of religion and expresses disdain for secularists. An official in Clinton’s campaign says Democrats shouldn’t nominate Obama, because he’s admitted to using drugs as a young man. Clinton apologizes. So does Republican Mike Huckabee, after he’s quoted as saying, “Don’t Mormons believe Jesus and the devil are brothers?”